Category: Jobs/Unemployment

Earlier this week, the state reported that November unemployment rose to 6.2 percent even though an average of 7,200 jobs have been created this year. The reason given: More people are re-entering the improving labor market. There’s metro Seattle and there’s the rest of the state. Here a booming economy has driven unemployment down to…

The economy added a very solid 321,000 jobs in November, even though the unemployment rate remained at 5.8 percent. Economist Jared Bernstein smooths out the trend with a monthly average 278,000 jobs created over the past three months and 228,000 over the past year. Hours improved and labor force participation, which has fallen dramatically…

The Associated General Contractors released a report today where 83 percent of respondents said they were having at least some trouble finding qualified craft workers as the industry recovers. The trade association’s chief economist, Ken Simonson, said this was a consequence of the nation’s educational system shifting away from teaching career and technical skills. The situation…

Maybe it was a bump in the road. August’s unemployment report for Washington — stuck at 5.4 percent, the same as July — was preliminary and might be revised for the better. The same might be true for the net loss of 1,500 jobs. After all, July’s jobs gain was revised upward from 7,300 to…

Below is a chart that only an econ geek could love, but hang with me. I’ll give you a lollypop: It represents an attempt by economists John Robertson and Ellyn Terry of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta to get a handle on the state of part-time employment in America in the wake of the recession….

It has been well documented that wages adjusted for inflation for most workers have been stagnant since the mid-1970s. The one exception: from the late 1990s until 2002. This is a key driver of rising inequality. But researchers at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College have added a new twist. The labor force is…

Today’s report that the economy added a seasonally adjusted 288,000 jobs in June means that the “jobs gap” created by the enormous drop in demand and employment, combined with growth in the labor force, could be filled by early 2017. As daunting as that sounds, it’s better than we’ve seen since the end…

After Friday’s report that the nation had added 217,000 jobs in May, it was widely reported that we had finally recovered all the jobs lost from the Great Recession. That downturn officially ended in June 2009. Unfortunately, this is not true. The labor force has grown since the collapse began in 2007, so we’re…

Speaking before the Economic Club of New York today, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen seemed to give the stock market cause for celebration by indicating the central bank won’t be making any sudden moves to tighten its “taper” as long as the nearly five-year-old recovery remains so fragile. She laid out three questions that will…

With last Friday’s report that the economy added 192,000 jobs, we have now technically recovered all the jobs lost during the Great Recession. We’re back to 2008 levels of private-sector employment. You get a gold star if you said, “but it’s not 2008.” That’s the important “but” that should be in all the headlines. The working-age population…